THE VOYAGE.

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 作者：华盛顿·欧文投票推荐加入书签留言反馈

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Ships, ships, I will descrie you

 Amidst the main,

 I will e and try you,

 What you are proteg,

 And projeg,

 Whats your end and aim.

 One goes abroad for merdise and trading,

 Aays to keep his try from invading,

 A third is ing home with rid wealthy lading.

 Hallo! my fancie, whither wilt thou go?

 OLD POEM.

 To an Ameri visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative. The temporary absence of worldly ses and employments produces a state of mind peculiarly ?tted to receive new and vivid impressions. The vast space of waters that separate the hemispheres is like a blank page iehere is no gradual transition by which, as in Europe, the features and population of one try blend almost imperceptibly with those of another. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacy, until you step on the opposite shore, and are lau oo the bustle and ies of another world.

 In travelling by land there is a tinuity of se, and a ected succession of persons and is, that carry oory of life, and lessen the effect of absend separation.

 We drag, it is true, "a lengthening " at each remove of our pilgrimage; but the is unbroken; we trace it back link by link; and we feel that the last still grapples us to home. But a wide sea voyage severs us at o makes us scious of being cast loose from the secure anche of settled life, a adrift upon a doubtful world. It interposes a gulf, not merely imaginary, but real, between us and our homes--a gulf, subjepest, and fear, and uainty, rendering distance palpable, aurn precarious.

 Such, at least, was the case with myself. As I saw the last blue lines of my native land fade away like a cloud in the horizon, it seemed as if I had closed one volume of the world and its s, and had time for meditation, before I opened another.

 That land, too, now vanishing from my view, which tained all most dear to me in life; what vicissitudes might occur in it--what ges might take pla me, before I should visit it again! Who tell, whes forth to wander, whither he may be driven by the uain currents of existence; or when he may return; or whether it may be ever his lot to revisit the ses of his childhood?

 I said, that at sea all is vacy; I should correct the impression. To one given to day-dreaming, and fond of losing himself in reveries, a sea voyage is full of subjects for meditation; but then they are the wonders of the deep and of the air, and rather tend to abstract the mind from worldly themes. I delighted to loll over the quarter-railing or climb to the main-top, of a calm day, and muse for hours together oranquil bosom of a summers sea; to gaze upon the piles of golden clouds just peering above the horizon, fancy them some fairy realms, and people them with a creation of my own; --to watch the gently undulating billows rolling their silver volumes, as if to die away on those happy shores.

 There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and awe with which I looked down, from my giddy height, on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols: shoals of <var></var>porpoises tumbling about the bow of the ship; the grampus, slowly heaving his huge form above the surface; or the ravenous shark, darting, like a spectre, through the blue waters. My imagination would jure up all that I had heard or read of the watery world beh me; of the ?nny herds that roam its fathomless valleys; of the shapeless mohat lurk among the very foundations of the earth; and of those wild phantasms that swell the tales of ?shermen and sailors.

 Sometimes a distant sail, gliding along the edge of the o, would be aheme of idle speculation. How iing this fragment of a world, hastening to rejoin the great mass of existence! What a glorious mo of human iion; which has in a mariumphed over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the world into union; has established an interge of blessings, p into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; has diffused the light of knowledge, and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between whiature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier.

 We one day descried some shapeless object drifting at a distance.

 At sea, every thing that breaks the monotony of the surrounding exparacts attention. It proved to be the mast of a ship that must have been pletely wrecked; for there were the remains of handkerchiefs, by whie of the crew had faste>藏书网</a>hemselves to this spar, to prevent their being washed off by the waves. There was no trace by which the name of the ship could be ascertaihe wreck had evidently drifted about for many months; clusters of shell-?sh had fastened about it, and long sea-weeds ?au its sides. But where, thought I, is the crew? Their struggle has long beehey have gone down amidst the roar of the tempest--their bones lie whitening among the caverns of the deep. Silence, oblivion, like the waves, have closed over them, and no one tell the story of their end.

 What sighs have been wafted after that ship! rayers offered up at the deserted ?reside of home! How often has the mistress, the wife, the mother, pored over the daily news, to cate casual intelligence of this rover of the deep! How has expectation darkened into ay--ay into dread--and dread into despair! Alas! not oo may ever return for love to cherish. All that may ever be known, is that she sailed from her port, "and was never heard of more!"

 The sight of this wreck, as usual, gave rise to many dismal aes. This articularly the case in the evening, when the weather, which had hitherto been fair, began to look wild and threatening, and gave indications of one of those sudden storms that will sometimes break in upon the serenity of a summer voyage. As we sat round the dull light of a lamp, in the , that made the gloom mhastly, everyone had his tale of shipwred disaster. I articularly struck with a short oed by the captain:

 "As I was once sailing," said he, "in a ?out ship, across the banks of Newfoundland, one of those heavy fogs that prevail in those parts re impossible for us to see far ahead, even in the daytime; but at night the wea<cite></cite>ther was so thick that we could not distinguish any object at twice the length of the ship. I kept lights at the mast-head, and a stant watch forward to look out for ?shing smacks, which are aced to anchor of the banks. The wind was blowing a smag breeze, and we were going at a great rate through the water. Suddenly the watch gave the alarm of `a sail ahead!--it was scarcely uttered before we were upon her. She was a small ser, at anchor, with her broadside toward us. The crew were all asleep, and had ed to hoist a light. We struck her just amidships. The force, the size, a of our vessel, bore her down below the waves; we passed over her and were hurried on our course. As the crashing wreck was sinkih us, I had a glimpse of two or three half-naked wretches, rushing from her ; they just started from their beds to be swallowed shrieking by the waves. I heard their drowning cry mingling with the wind. The blast that bore it to our ears, swept us out of all further hearing. I shall never fet that cry! It was some time before we could put the ship about, she was under such headway. We returned, as nearly as we could guess, to the place where the smack had anchored. We cruised about for several hours in the dense fog. We ?red signal-guns, and listened if we might hear the halloo of any survivors: but all was silent--we never saw or heard any thing of them more."

 I fess these stories, for a time, put ao all my ?ne fahe storm increased with the night. The sea was lashed into tremendous fusion. There was a fearful, sullen sound of rushing waves and broken surges. Deep called unto deep. At times the blae of clouds overhead seemed rent asunder by ?ashes of lightning which quivered along the foaming billows, and made the succeeding darkness doubly terrible. The thunders bellowed over the wild waste of waters, and were echoed and prolonged by the mountain waves. As I saw the ship staggering and plunging among these r caverns, it seemed miraculous that she regained her balance, or preserved her buoyancy. Her yards would dip into the water; her bow was almost buried beh the waves. Sometimes an impending surge appeared ready to overwhelm her, and nothing but a dexterous movement of the helm preserved her from the shock.

 When I retired to my , the awful se still followed me.

 The whistling of the wind through the rigging sounded like funereal wailings. The creaking of the masts; the straining and groaning of bulkheads, as the ship labored in the weltering sea, were frightful. As I heard the waves rushing along the side of the ship, and r in my very ear, it seemed as if Death were raging around this ?oating prison, seeking for his prey: the mere starting of a nail, the yawning of a seam, might give him entrance.

 A ?ne day, however, with a tranquil sea and fav breeze, soon put all these dismal re?es to ?ight. It is impossible to resist the gladdening in?uence of ?her and fair wind at sea. When the ship is decked out in all her vas, every sail swelled, and careering gayly over the curling waves, how lofty, how gallant, she appears--how she seems to lord it over the deep!

 I might ?ll a volume with the reveries of a sea voyage; for with me it is almost a tinual reverie--but it is time to get to shore.

 It was a ?ne sunny m whehrilling cry of "land!" was given from the mast-head. those who have experie form an idea of the delicious throng of sensations which rush into an Ameris bosom, when he ?rst es in sight of Europe.

 There is a volume of associations with the very is the land of promise, teeming with everything of which his childhood has heard, or on which his studious years have pondered.

 From that time, until the moment of arrival, it was all feverish excitement. The ships of war, that prowled like guardian giants along the coast; the headlands of Ireland, stretg out into the el; the Welsh mountains t into the clouds;--all were objects of inteerest. As we sailed up the Mersey, I reoitred the shores with a telescope. My eye dwelt with delight o cottages, with their trim shrubberies and green grass-plots. I saw the mouldering ruin of an abbey overrun with ivy, and the taper spire of a village church rising from the brow of a neighb hill;--all were characteristic of England.

 The tide and wind were so favorable, that the ship was eo e at oo her pier. It was thronged with people; some idle lookers-on; others, eager expets of friends or relations. I could distinguish the mert to whom the ship was signed. I knew him by his calculating brow aless air. His hands were thrust into his pockets; he was whistling thoughtfully, and walking to and fro, a small space having been accorded him by the crowd, in defereo his temporary importahere were repeated cheerings and salutations interged between the shore and the ship, as friends happenize each other. I particularly noticed one young woman of humble dress, but iing demeanor. She was leaning forward from among the crowd; her eye hurried over the ship as it he shore, to cate wished-for tenance. She seemed disappointed and sad; when I heard a faint voice call her name.--It was from a poor sailor who had been ill all the voyage, and had excited the sympathy of every one on board. When the weather was ?ne, his messmates had spread a mattress for him on de the shade, but of late his illness had so increased that he had taken to his hammock, and only breathed a wish that he might see his wife before he died. He had been helped on deck as we came up the river, and was now leaning against the shrouds, with a tenance so wasted, so pale, so ghastly, that it was no wonder even the eye of affe did nnize him. But at the sound of his voice, her eye darted on his features: it read, at once, a whole volume of sorrow; she clasped her hands, uttered a faint shriek, and stoing them in silent agony.

 All now was hurry and bustle. The meetings of acquaintahe greetings of friends--the sultations of men of business. I alone was solitary and idle. I had no friend to meet, no cheering to receive. I stepped upon the land of my forefathers--but felt that I was a stranger in the land.

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